Activating the Auto-Sorting

You’ve just set up RetentionX’s Site Merchandising? That's awesome! Here’s what happens next.

Once the setup is complete, your first collection data becomes available after three days. This allows you to understand th eperformance of your products and how RetentionX would - based on the first data - sort them on your collection pages. So you are able to turn on the automation, so that RetntionX automatically pushes the sorting to your Shopify account - while repecting your custom sorting rules you've defined. Therefore you are able to activate the auto-sorting on a collection-basis. 

For best results, we recommend collecting seven days of data before enabling auto-sorting. This gives the algorithm enough context to optimize your collections reliably.

Collection States

Each collection can be in one of three states, which are indicated by a colored dot next to the collection name:

	Initial Data Collection The collection is tracking first data.
	Auto-Sorted Collection Auto-sorting is enabled, and product positions are optimized based on performance data and  sorting rules.
	Manually Sorted Collection Auto-sorting is turned off. Product positions are not optimized by RetentionX.

Understanding the performance score

Clicking on a collection opens the collection detail view, where you can see performance data for all products in that collection.


RetentionX calculates a performance score from 0 to 100 for each product. This score is based on four metrics:

• Click-Through Rate
  The percentage of clicks on a product relative to all collection views in the last seven days. Performance is evaluated by comparing the actual click-through rate to the expected click-through rate for the product’s position.

• Basket Rate
  The percentage of product views that resulted in the product being added to the cart in the last 30 days. Performance is evaluated by comparing the actual basket rate to the expected basket rate for the product’s position.

• Purchase Rate
  The percentage of products added to the cart that resulted in a completed purchase in the last 30 days. Performance is evaluated by comparing the actual purchase rate to the expected purchase rate for the product’s position.

• Product LTV
  The average 90-day lifetime value of customers whose first purchase was the product, calculated as net revenue minus COGS.

In the collection detail view, products are automatically sorted based on their performance score.

Activating Auto-Sorting

By default, auto-sorting is disabled for all collections. Once initial data has been tracked, you'll receive an email notification informing you that your collections are ready for auto-sorting.

You can activate auto-sorting in two places:

1. From the Collection Overview
   
    

2. From the Collection Detail Page
   

Once auto-sorting is activated, RetentionX pushes the updated product positions to Shopify. If multiple products have the same assigned position (e.g. due to custom sorting rules), Shopify will randomly arrange them.

Auto-sorting updates occur daily. However, if needed, you can manually trigger an immediate re-sync. This action applies the latest sorting updates to all collections where auto-sorting is enabled.

The collection detail pages provide transparency by displaying product positions and recent movements:

What to Expect After Activating Auto-Sorting

After auto-sorting is enabled, RetentionX continuously optimizes product positioning.

Especially during the first one to two weeks, you may notice frequent product movements. This is expected. RetentionX tests how products perform at different positions. For example, a product initially ranked at position #10 may be moved to #5 to test its performance with increased visibility. If it underperforms there, it may be adjusted to position #7.

Over time, rankings stabilize and movements become less frequent, while still adapting to new products and changing customer behavior.

You can monitor performance before and after auto-sorting by clicking the expand icon in the Views, Click-Through Rate, and Revenue per Mille widgets.

This opens a detailed view in the Collection Development report, where you can track KPI trends over time and benchmark individual collections against your overall performance.

Deactivating Auto-Sorting

If you wish to disable auto-sorting for a collection, you can do so easily again from either:

1. The Collection Overview
   
    

2. The Collection Detail Page